I bought one of the $40 upgrades and installed it using the USB drive I had made from my OEM ISO. So at least that's something. It seems you can get key after key from the upgrade process and do a clean install with them no problem. Now I wish I hadn't bought any OEM copies at all... What was that someone said about arrows in the back? Oh well...

Krynn72 wrote:So you can do a full install with the Upgrade version, as long as you enter the key from the win8 system builder copy during install? I know you explained it, but I'm not sure I follow.

It sounds like the Upgrade version, as long as the XP/Vista/7 install is valid, will run as many times as you might like, but generating a new key every time. Of course, I'm not there so if I'm wrong DrFish can correct ...

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Let me try again, generate as many $40 keys as you want from the upgrade download without actually upgrading, no proof of eligibility required after generating the keys. Download ISO from the upgrade process as intended OR use the OEM DVD/ISO and use the upgrade keys with that - it will work regardless. A nice change from previously where retail and OEM keys were not interchangeable.

I have not tried using the upgrade ISO with an OEM key - my guess is key dictates function and the source media doesn't matter.

Cool. Thanks for explaining. I'm tempted to do that as well, but I'd hate to spend another $40 (or rather, give Microsoft another $40) and find out there's a registry tweak discovered in a couple weeks.

Well my $40 went toward upgrading my HTPC, my OEM copies went toward my laptop and main rig. The W500 with the 3rd OEM copy is a work machine and I already put the sticker on it so I'm going to wait for a hack to use it there.

I do have 3 more copies of Win7/Vista that I can get legit $40 upgrades for though (about time that copy of Vista was good for something).

So I'm in advanced start-up options, got to where I am supposed to be able to hit "7" to disable driver signature enforcement (not even sure if that will work or not) but now of course my keyboard won't register so I can't make the selection. I'm good up until I restart at the "Startup Settings" screen - then I lose all the lights on my keyboard and I have no input device at all. The BIOS on this thing is so sparse I don't have any options to change legacy USB support or anything like that - I'm just stuck.

FYI, I bought an upgrade key for $40 and following these directions installed it in place of the OEM key. A simple reboot and touch input works perfectly well. I'll just use my OEM key on another system.

Ugh... So finally went to try this today, same OEM key that I couldn't use on the W500 because of the whole touch screen fiasco... Now I'm told I can't activate this copy of Windows on the new PC, I haven't talked to a person yet but even calling the automated number told me that my product was invalid...? So what? This key is just burned up booting Windows once or twice on a machine I couldn't use it on because of some BS restriction that forced me to buy another copy anyway? I don't even remember activating it on the W500, oh that's right, it activates automatically so I never had a chance to save that key in the first place.